Temporary or semi-permanent support surfaces have been used for roadways, remote jobsites, industrial staging areas and the like in an ever-increasing myriad of industries, such as construction, military, oilfield, transportation, disaster response, utilities and entertainment. These support surfaces are often made up of heavy duty, durable, all-weather, thermoplastic mats, which are reusable and interlock together to form the support surface. Traditionally, the mats include connecting holes that can be aligned on adjacent mats and through which removable locking pins are inserted for connecting the mats. However, many presently known locking pins are not adjustable to form a tight connection of adjacent mats in different circumstances.
In various known system, a plastic liner is placed below and around the mat assembly in an effort to capture liquids that are spilled, or otherwise introduced, onto the support surface before such liquids encounter the subgrade terrain. The use of liners with temporary or semi-permanent support surfaces may have one or more disadvantages. In many instances, once the need for the temporary support surface has lapsed, the interlocking mats are disassembled for later use. However, since the liners, unlike the mats, are not normally reusable, they must often be discarded. This can be problematic because landfill operators have expressed disinterest in accepting used liners on the basis that they are bulky and require excessive landfill space, or for other reasons. Thus, it can be difficult to find suitable cost-effective ways to dispose of the liners. For another example, the plastic liners are sometimes ineffective at preventing fluid leakage from the support surface or allowing effective clean-up, which can cause other problems and require significant time and effort. Thus, in some instances, there is a need for locking pins that can assist in forming a fluid tight seal between adjacent mats.
It should be understood that the above-described features, capabilities and disadvantages are provided for illustrative purposes only and is not intended to limit the scope or subject matter of the appended claims or those of any related patent application or patent. Thus, none of the appended claims or claims of any related application or patent should be limited by the above discussion or construed to address, include or exclude each or any of the above-cited features, capabilities or disadvantages merely because of the mention thereof herein.
Accordingly, there exists a need for improved systems, articles and methods useful for connecting components of a load-supporting surface having one or more of the attributes or capabilities described or shown in, or as may be apparent from, the other portions of this patent.